Mexico, D.F.: Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1952. Quarto (27.5 x 21 cm). Stapled typed sheets on pictorial letterhead; 4 pp. each. Some light handling wear, very minor scattered foxing, soiling, overall very good. Together with an original poster from the exhibition.

In the spring of 1952, the Paris Museum of Modern Art hosted a groundbreaking exhibition of ancient and modern Mexican art. An article from the June 1952 issue of the UNESCO Courier stated "An exhibition on Mexican art, of exceptionally wide scope, opened last month at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. Its aim is not merely to offer connoisseurs a chance to admire Mexican paintings, statues or rare art objects. It is far more than that, for it reveals a great civilization which is really understood only by a relative minority of travellers and specialists. What the exhibition offers us is an opportunity to comprehend the people of Mexico, not from the outside in the political or ethnological sense but deeply and profoundly by tracing their spiritual and aesthetic development. On this occasion, too, the Mexican Government has placed at the disposal of European radio stations collections of recordings of its authentic folk music and its modern symphonic music. This great cultural event, then, goes far beyond the scope of the ordinary art exhibition."

A series of bulletins written by academics and specialists were released to accompany the exhibition, focusing on various sections and themes highlighted within the exhibition. Printed on letterhead of the National Museum of Plastic Arts, the Nacional Institute of Fine Arts, and the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico City, the letterhead features Mexican iconography: a Mictlantecuhtli or "lord of death" in the upper left corner, and a recumbent figure after José Clemente Orozco in the upper right.

The present collection includes thirty-two total bulletins, written by J.J. Crespo de la Serna and Enrique F. Gaul. It is not known exactly how many total bulletins were published. J.J. Crespo de la Serna (Jorge Juan) was a Mexican artist, art critic, art historian, professor, and member of the Academia de Artes in Mexico City. Enrique Gaul is described in the bulletins as an "eminent critic", but not much additional information is known about him other than a listing on OCLC for a 1954 book by him titled "El arte en los Estados Unidos: La pintura."

The bulletins included in this collection from the series by Crespo are as follows: #2. La Conquista y las primeras construcciónes de los Españoles en el Antiguo Mexico; #3. Poblados, Fortalezas y Templos en la Nueva España; #4. Características Arquitectónicas del Mexico Colonial; #5. La Escultura Indígena Mexicana en la Arquitectura de Origen Hispano; #6. Significación y papel del Tlacuilo en la primera etapa del Mexico colonial; #7. La iglesia y el arte en la nueva España; #8. Retrastica anonima, retablos y bodegones en el Mexico colonial; #9. El Barroco Mexicano; #10. Carácter barroco del Arte en el Mexico Colonial; #11. Esencias del arte popular Mexicano; #12. Jose Maria Velasco gran paisajista mexicano; #13. Muralistas Anónimos populares de Mexico; #14. Significacion del grabador Jose Guadalupe Posada en la escuela Mexicana de pintura (1851-1913); #15. Los pintores Mexicanos Francisco Goitia y Gerardo Murillo; #16. Arte y vida de Jose Clemente Orozco; #17. La Pintura monumental y de experimentación en Mexico; #18. Diego Rivera; #19. Arte y personalidad de Rufino Tamayo; #20. Pintores contemporáneos de Mexico; #21. Arquitectura moderna Mexicana; and #22. Raiz y Razon de un Arte Mexicano.

The bulletins from the series by Enrique Gaul are: #1. El Impulso Mexicano de la Belleza; #2. Pintura Religiosa; #3. La pintura popular de Exvotos; #4. Pintura del Siglo XVI; #5. Murales del Siglo XVI; #6. Sentido social del grabado mexicano; #7. Un convento Mexicano: Santo Domingo de Yanhuitlan; #8. Arquitectura barroca; #9. Un Templo Mexicano: Sta. Maria Tonantzintla, Pue. Una obra maestra del barroco popular del Siglo XVII; #10. Paisajismo Mexicano; #11. Juguetería Mexicana; #12. Cerámica popular de Mexico; #13. La muerte en el arte Mexicano; #14. Un extraño juguete Mexicano: Los judas; and #15 Mosaicos de plumas.

An exceedingly rare collection of scholarship on a landmark Mexican art exhibition. As of March 2023, we could locate only one other holding of a collection of these bulletins, a group of 40 held by the British Museum.

Book ID: 52770

Sold